Canless, Importless Green Bean Casserole

Getting ready for eating at the holidays is one of my favorite things to do. Its probably not a good thing that my OB told me I needed to be careful how much weight I am gaining right now! I wanted to tell him, "Um, Dr. Yang, maybe you don't know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming and dieting is the last thing I plan to do!" Oh well! To the point, a lot of us probably get to this time of year and have to rely on well-timed packages from home or pricey import items to make what we want to make. In the past, we've brought or had people send us cans of French's Fried Onions and Cream of Mushroom soup so we could make Green Bean Casserole. Though I will say that I actually like this recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans as much or more. But, in an effort to give you a useful recipe for Thanksgiving, I have experimented with this canless, importless green bean casserole and its actually really good! Who needs Campbell's and French's?

Green Bean Casserole
4 cups or so cooked green beans
1 1/2 cups homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup milk
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 1/3-1/2 cups fried onions

Mix together soup and milk, adding black pepper, green beans and half of the fried onions. Bake at 350F (180C) for 30 minutes or until hot. Stir. Top with remaining fried onions and bake 5 minutes more.

Notes: This is just the exact recipe off a can of French's Fried Onions. We thought this was really good when we made it. I just followed the recipe for making the cream of mushroom variation on the cream of chicken soup post. I didn't put any seasoning other than beef bullion, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder though. I didn't think sage was a flavor I wanted (typically a chicken or fish pairing). But I will say the dish lacked a little depth of flavor, so in the future I will season the soup a little more heavily, maybe some thyme or oregano or fresh garlic in addition to the mushrooms. Making every component of this from scratch is certainly more work than opening a bunch of cans, but the result is well worth it, especially for holiday meals! I actually about burned down my house trying to do it all at once right before dinner...my oil got way over heated when making the onions. My house still stinks! So maybe do what you can to prep ahead some things like the green beans and the soup!!